1. Technical Field
The invention relates to video gaming consoles. In particular, the invention relates to systems for increasing the number of players that may concurrently participate in a video game.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The continued rise in popularity of video gaming consoles, such as the GameCube®, manufactured by Nintendo; the Playstation2®, manufactured by Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc.; and the Xbox®, manufactured by Microsoft Corporation, is a well known phenomenon. The sustained success of such platforms is in large part due to the greater realism of game play provided by increasingly sophisticated game physics and increasingly powerful graphics rendering engines.
However, another factor behind the increasing popularity is an improved ability of players to interact with one another meaningfully during game play. For example, multi-player adapters are available that increase the number of players that can participate in a video game. Whereas several consoles directly support connection for only two players, multi-player adapters allow four or more players to participate. An example is the InterAct Multiplayer Adapter manufactured by InterAct Accessories, Inc.
Multi-player adapters pass the control inputs generated by the controllers on to the video game console for interpretation by the game software. Thus, use of a multi-player adapter requires that the game software be designed to handle the increased number of control input sets. Use of multi-player adapters is thus limited to a fraction of all available games. Furthermore, because each controller connected to the multi-player adapter is used to control a separate on-screen entity, e.g. character or vehicle, as the number of participating players increases, the amount of screen real-estate dedicated to each entity must be decreased. For example, in racing games, each of four players is provided with a view of his vehicle, but only a relatively limited extent of the vehicle surroundings.
An alternative approach for providing multi-player interaction is network based game play, in which multiple players, each with a dedicated game console, share a common game state maintained by a networked game server. Each player's game console connects to the game server, and transmits to the server the actions of the local player. The console in turn receives from the server updates of the game state, for presentation to the local player on the local display. One such system is XboxLive®, operated by Microsoft Corporation.
While the networked based approach does address the above mentioned screen real estate issue, it too requires specialized support from game software. Furthermore, it requires network access the network game server that maintains the common game state. Each player must therefore have a network connection, and, typically, must also pay a subscription fee to gain access to the server.
What is needed is a system that allows multiple players to interact during video game play, but does not require specialized support from the game software, does not require access to a network or game server, and does not result in a reduction of on-screen real-estate dedicated to each player. Additionally, it would be desirable for the system to support and encourage new and exciting variations in game play and player interaction.